1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for performing a medical procedure, wherein the medical procedure includes the generation and safe transfer of energy from an energy source to a microwave energy delivery device. More particularly, an isolation apparatus is disclosed for use in a microwave energy delivery system to reduce undesirable radiated emissions during the delivery of microwave energy.
2. Background of Related Art
Microwave delivery systems and ablation procedures using microwave energy are designed to safely deliver microwave energy to a target tissue. The equipment, the act of energy delivery or the procedures used to deliver energy may be regulated by various governmental or industrial regulations or standards, such as, for example, FCC regulations and standards for microwave equipment or electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) regulations and standards to ensure that the microwave equipment does not interfere with other electronic equipment. Industrial standards may be related to patient safety, such as, for example, providing sufficient electrical isolation between a generator and a patient. As such, the microwave energy generation and transmission devices are specifically designed to minimize and reduce undesirable energy delivery.
One common design practice used to ensure patient safety in electrosurgical generators is to create an isolation barrier between the generator and the patient. This is accomplished by isolating the generator output from an earth ground. Isolation barriers may be created by various generally accepted circuits, such as, for example, a transformer or capacitors that would have a low impedance at about 60 Hz. While the practice of including an isolation barrier is generally effective with systems delivering energy in RF frequencies, delivering energy with a signal in a microwave frequency provides new opportunities for microwave generator and system designers.
One such opportunity for microwave generators and their system designers is that microwave generators need to pass FCC regulations for EMC while operating. The fundamental frequency (i.e., the frequency band of the desirable microwave signal) is usually in an Instrumental Scientific Medical (ISM) band and is not an issue. Instead, EMC issues typically evolve around unintended energy discharges at frequencies outside of the IMS band, such as, for example, harmonics frequencies of the fundamental frequency above the ISM band.
Harmonics of the fundamental frequency may be a product of the microwave generator's signal generator or may be induced at various locations in the microwave generator circuits and/or the microwave energy delivery circuit. For example, harmonics are sometimes a product of the isolation barrier that is intended to isolate the generator from the patient and to provide patient safety. For example, the isolation barrier in a microwave delivery system may include the floating of the coaxial shield (i.e., the practice of not attaching the coaxial shield to the ground of the generator). Microwave energy may run along the shield of the coaxial cable and cause the coax cable to radiate as an antenna. This antenna affect can cause the generator's harmonics to be amplified and fail one or more EMC standards.
The present disclosure relates to an isolation apparatus for use in the microwave energy delivery system to reduce undesirable EMC during the delivery of microwave energy.